SCC Girls Track Championship: Santos named Outstanding Athlete

SEEKONK — Senior Paige Santos passed below the radar for three years as a complementary piece of the Old Rochester girls track machine.

BILL ABRAMSON

SEEKONK — Senior Paige Santos passed below the radar for three years as a complementary piece of the Old Rochester girls track machine.

Friday in the South Coast Conference Track Championship at Seekonk High, she felt the pressure. Like a true champion, she responded by winning three events and leading the Lady Bulldogs and her to their fourth straight SCC spring track championship, 143-102, over runner-up Wareham. In the process, she was voted the Outstanding Female Athlete of the meet.

"Last year, Paige Santos was the best athlete that nobody knew about," ORR coach Bill Tilden said. "When you haven't lost for years, this group of seniors didn't want to be the ones that lost. She accepted her role and the pressure."

With the cool weather, there weren't too many personal records set and Santos' three wins were no exception. She won her 100 hurdles in 15.89 (her best was 15.84), the 400 hurdles in 69.62 (68.5) and the high jump at 5-1 (5-4).

"They were average times, but they were good enough to win today," Santos explained. "We were down three girls, so I felt the pressure. We needed to pull off wins and I'm so happy for my team, but I'm so sad that it's over."

Santos has been a part of eight straight SCC championships, four in the winter and four in the spring.

She will attend Providence College, a school noted for its distance runners, but one looking to build up its sprinters and hurdlers. As a pre-teen, Santos got her first taste for running when her aunt and uncle, Debra and Bruce Holden of Rochester, brought her along with them to road races.

"She's a multi-talented athlete and she's a better person than she is an athlete," ORR girls coach Cindy Tilden said. "It's nice to have people like Paige and Morgan (DaSilva) that you can count on."

DaSilva won the 400 (61.80) and the long jump (with a personal record 15-3) and anchored the winning 4x400 relay team. She is headed for UConn in the fall.

A double winner for Wareham was junior Maddie St. Julien, who won the triple jump (33-6¼) and the 200 (27.08). Her strategy in the 200 worked to perfection.

"I try to preserve my energy on the curve and go all out the last 100," she said. That's the way the raced played out as she caught and passed Seekonk's Nicole Mowry on the final straightaway.

St. Julien missed the winter state meet as she made her second trip with her church group, the Church in the Pines in Wareham, to the Church of the Orange Groves in Haiti. Last year, she worked on building houses. This year she worked as a leader in conferences with Haitian youths.

"Last year, I was more scared because I didn't know what to expect," she said. "We got to the city and it was really congested, there's poverty and it's really dangerous. We went to the town of Jacmel, behind the mountains, and we got close to the people there.

"It's uplifting. You go there thinking you're going to be helping them, but they help you. Their spirits are so high, even though they have nothing. I came back thinking about them. I have everything here and they have nothing."

Wareham coach Chris Gardner was thrilled with the second-place finish his 19-member team pulled off after finishing second in the league during the season (6-1-1).

"Maddie had a breakout year," Gardner said. "Her dad (Henry) used to coach cross country at Wareham (in the 1990s) and I knew she would be a good athlete. She's in the top 15 in her class and she's a born leader."

"My dad's a runner and we still have races," Maddie said. "He thinks he'll win, but he's not as good as I am."